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Why we know that Biden’s confrontation of Bush story is false.

For those in a hurry, the short version is 'Because Joe Biden is a known moral coward.'

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  April 9th, 2009 at 09:14 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

I read, of course, the story “Bush Aides Challenge Biden’s Boasts of Oval Office Slapdowns“:

Aides to former President George W. Bush are challenging the veracity of Vice President Joe Biden’s claim this week of having privately castigated Bush, who does not remember the incident or an earlier episode in which Biden claims to have similarly rebuked Bush.

Biden spokesman Jay Carney declined to specify the dates of his boss’s purported Oval Office scoldings of Bush. Nor would he provide witnesses or notes to corroborate the episodes.

…but this was one time that it was largely unnecessary, thanks to the people involved. When it came to the GWOT, George W Bush was and is not the sort of man who would seek out Joe Biden’s company, crave Joe Biden’s counsel, nor heed Joe Biden’s advice; an attitude which has since been proven to be fully justified, given that these days the White House is busily pretending that they’re doing anything in Iraq besides following Bush’s strategy. That’s on the one hand – and if you read the article, you’ll note that not even Biden’s dumb enough to try to claim that the President was anything except resolute on the matter.

And if you want to take Joe Biden’s word for it, absent apparently any physical evidence or corroborating testimony… feel free. You’ll be taking the word of a man who, back during the election, sat by and said nothing when his seemingly-sincere apology for a nasty political attack from his side was contemptuously retracted by his running mate’s press secretary.  That was a bit of a clarifying moment for me personally; prior to that, I had Biden merely down as a blowhard who you’d nonetheless find convivial enough company in a social setting. Afterward, I was pretty much forced to conclude that he was a blowhard whose ambitions were sufficiently petty that the goal of Vice-President of the United States would be enough to allow him to self-justify anything that would get him to his goal. Up to and including staying silent while other people lied in his name. But we’re expected to believe that a man like this would actually confront the President of the United States on a policy that both he and the President knew that the President was in the right about.

Fascinating.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

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  • robmikpet

    But that can’t be true what with the total right wing bias of the media, how could he possibly work for a Democrat.

  • ryanwilliams

    Go to this shortened link:
    http://is.gd/rBb2

    This is from The West Wing, season five.
    Search for “leader with no followers.”
    The fictional Vice President, Bob Russell, said that in an Oval Office conversation with the Chief of Staff.

    Biden is confusing real history with made-up fiction. I guess a lot of democrats like to live in a world far removed from reality. It’s easier to handle things when you make them up.

  • http://www.publiusforum.com Warner Todd Huston

    Biden’s history of lies and lifted quotes

    August 26, 2008
    Recommended (16)

    BY CAROL FELSENTHAL

    I wonder whether Barack Obama?s vetters, Caroline Kennedy and Eric Holder, knew what they were doing when they settled on Joe Biden. Journalists and McCain opposition researchers must be logging onto Nexis and searching 1987-1988 using the key words ?Biden and plagiarism.? There is a feast of material that would make even the most partisan Obama backer question the wisdom of this choice.

    Biden, then 44, was forced out of the 1988 presidential race ? he officially dropped out on Sept. 23, 1987 ? just when his candidacy seemed to be taking off in Iowa, the all-important first caucus, and just as he seemed to be gaining on Michael Dukakis, the eventual nominee.

    A Dukakis staffer noticed and fed to Maureen Dowd, then a New York Times reporter rather than columnist, that Biden had lifted almost verbatim his closing remarks at a debate at the Iowa state fairgrounds in August 1987. The lines were lifted from a passionate speech delivered by British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock.

    Here?s Kinnock: ?Why am I the first Kinnock in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? . . . Was it because all our predecessors were thick? Was it because they were weak? Those people who could work eight hours underground and then come up and play football? Weak? . . . It was because there was no platform upon which they could stand.??

    Not only did Biden not credit Kinnock, he fooled his audience by using the classic liar?s technique of burnishing a lie with detail: ?I started thinking as I was coming over here, ?Why is it that Joe Biden?s the first in his family ever to go to a university? Is it because our fathers and mothers were not bright? . . . Is it because they didn?t work hard, my ancestors who worked in the coal mines of Northeast Pennsylvania and would come up after 12 hours and play football for four hours?. . . It?s because they didn?t have a platform upon which to stand.??

    Biden was not the first member of his family to go to college, and the closest his ancestors came to a coal mine was a grandfather who was a mining engineer.

    Stealing from RFK

    Once Dowd broke that story on the front page of the Times on Sept. 12, 1987, it spread quickly through newspapers, magazines, radio and television. The dam holding back Biden?s exaggerations and penchant for lifting words from others broke, and he nearly drowned in his own deceit.

    Biden also lifted words from Bobby Kennedy?s speeches ? paragraphs that political junkies prized so much they knew them by heart.

    Here?s RFK: ?Few will have the greatness to bend history itself. But each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.??

    Here?s Joe Biden: ?Well, few of us have the greatness to bend history itself. But each of us can act to affect a small portion of events, and in the totality of these acts will be written the history of this generation.??

    Bobby Kennedy: ?The gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry, or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our devotion to our country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile, and it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.??

    Here?s Joe Biden: ??We cannot measure the health of our children, the quality of their education, the joy of their play. . . . It doesn?t measure the beauty of our poetry, the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate, the integrity of our public officials. It counts neither our wit nor our wisdom, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country. . . . That bottom line can tell us everything about our lives except that which makes life worthwhile, and it can tell us everything about America except that which makes us proud to be Americans.??

    Biden said at the time that RFK was ?the man who I guess I admire more than anyone else in American politics.? No doubt about that.

    Anyone following the primary campaign in 1987 could see there was something eating at Joe Biden. He needed desperately for people to see him as the smartest guy in the room, and that, coupled with his hot temper and surging insecurities, resulted in the following exchange, which was captured on C-SPAN. Although more than 20 years old, it will no doubt find its way into political advertising.

    ?I have a much higher IQ?

    On April 3, 1987, at a campaign stop in Claremont, N.H., a voter named Frank innocently asked Biden what law school he attended and how he performed there.

    ?I think I have a much higher IQ than you do,? replied Biden, who went to Syracuse University College of Law. ?I went to law school on a full academic scholarship.?

    He told the astonished man that while he admittedly did not do well his first year because he didn?t want to be in law school, he did much better his second and third years and ended up in the top half of his class. ?I won the international moot court competition.?

    Without being asked, Biden then boasted about his performance in college, at the University of Delaware, telling Frank that he had been named the ?outstanding student in the political-science department. . . . I graduated with three degrees from college. . . . And I?d be delighted to sit back and compare my IQ to yours if you?d like, Frank.?

    There were a number of lies in this outburst and it was not long before they too were enumerated:

    ? Biden got in trouble in 1965, during his first year in law school. He wrote a paper in which he lifted five pages verbatim from the Fordham Law Review. He was given an ?F? in the course. He managed to avoid being bounced from law school, retook the course and earned a B.

    ? He claimed that he was ?the only one in my class to have a full academic scholarship.? He didn?t. He did have a half scholarship that was need-based.

    ? He did not graduate from law school in the top half of his class. He graduated 76th out of 85 ? and he was near the bottom of his class all three years.

    ? If he won the moot court competition ? and he claimed at the time that he actually did ? he did not put it on his resume, surprising for a man prone to so egregiously exaggerating his accomplishments.

    ? He did not win the award for being the outstanding student in the political science department at Delaware, and he graduated with one degree, not three. He had a ?C? average and graduated 506th in a class of 688.

    At the time, he told a reporter, ?I exaggerate when I?m angry.?

    There are other weird outbursts by Biden in more recent years, grandstanding questions to Supreme Court nominees in which it?s impossible to find the question, but not hard to find all kinds of personal information about the senator from Delaware.

    One example comes from Samuel Alito?s confirmation hearing in 2006. When it was Biden?s turn to question Alito, he mentioned that his daughter had applied or been accepted ? not clear which in Biden?s ramblings ? to graduate school at Princeton, but decided instead to go to the University of Pennsylvania. Biden showed up at the hearing wearing a Princeton hat. Keith Olbermann asked, ?Will the hat hurt his hair plugs??

    And that leads to the easy warning that I?ve been telling friends for years, ?Never trust a man who gets hair plugs.? The insecurity is right there in the peculiar set of his hair ? for all to see. Apparently Caroline Kennedy and Eric Holder missed it.

  • robmikpet

    If you read down the page about what happens when the government shuts down there is a part that says “EPA has to suspend 60% of factory inspections” to which soneone respnds “good news for polluters”

    Yes the MOMENT the EPA postpones your factory inspection those evil coproations actually start going to people’s home and pouring toxic chemicals RIGHT DOWN CHILDREN’s throats.

    We are now stuck with this image of American capitalism. Without a massive government watchdog it would be pollution, poisened food, cars just explode for no reason. Thank God they are here to protect us!

  • fisk2521

    When the Democrats like Pelosi et al make overtures to what they call “the Fairness Doctrine” I always think of how many television programs would qualify to be eliminated – - West Wing comes to mind. It is so obvious in it’s bias that you’d have to just take it off the air…..

    Obama’s choice of Biden is a reflection of poor leadership and bad choices. His entire cabinet appears to be the same.

    The amazing thing is that this administration seems to feel it necessary to continue to go after the previous Presidnet, a sign that they are at a loss for direction of their own.

    God save us from this choas.

  • billyjack

    Maybe the writings appear suspicous only because permissions obtained and judgments made offline werei not reflected online?

  • olsmithie
  • Marcus_Traianus

    Before becoming Vice President, Biden told a cascade of lies about everything from his academic record to alleged battlefield encounters. Those incidents have proven to be pure fabrication and falsehoods. They were not political attribution as some have opined and Biden himself later abjured

    Now as Vice President, each additional piece of mendacity progressively does a disservice to our country and his office. It aptly displays the willingness of his party to use our highest political offices as a means of furthering their ideology, no matter what the cost is.

    To lie about encounters with a former President as premise for fallacious policy argumentation should serve as a severe warning to our citizenry. When one stoops to such evil means, it is a sign their real agenda and policy sagacity are severely flawed. It is indicative their actions can not withstand real scrutiny or factual examination. Such obscuring of the truth and attempted use of personality as a shelter against debate are historical hallmarks of despots and factions with ulterior motives. The perpetrators realize fair, open and honest debate would expose their flaws and be contrary to the public interest they are supposed to serve.

    For years, they have publicly assassinated the character of President Bush to achieve political gain. In the process, Democrats have done monumental damage to this country and our credibility in the world. We have always had balancing political disagreements in our Republic. However, they were never pursued with such hatred, mendacity, propaganda and willingness to seek personal destruction. This has served their political agenda well by fooling the public which has allowed substantial destructive changes in our law, courts, social structure and governmental power. Where are the real culprits of this Republic?s destruction? They have been unwittingly betrayed and exposed by the prevarication of Mr. Biden.

  • Marcus_Traianus

    Before becoming Vice President, Biden told a cascade of lies about everything from his academic record to alleged battlefield encounters. Those incidents have proven to be pure fabrication and falsehoods. They were not political attribution as some have opined and Biden himself later abjured

    Now as Vice President, each additional piece of mendacity progressively does a disservice to our country and his office. It aptly displays the willingness of his party to use our highest political offices as a means of furthering their ideology, no matter what the cost is.

    To lie about encounters with a former President as premise for fallacious policy argumentation should serve as a severe warning to our citizenry. When one stoops to such evil means, it is a sign their real agenda and policy sagacity are severely flawed. It is indicative their actions can not withstand real scrutiny or factual examination. Such obscuring of the truth and attempted use of personality as a shelter against debate are historical hallmarks of despots and factions with ulterior motives. The perpetrators realize fair, open and honest debate would expose their flaws and be contrary to the public interest they are supposed to serve.

    For years, they have publicly assassinated the character of President Bush to achieve political gain. In the process, Democrats have done monumental damage to this country and our credibility in the world. We have always had balancing political disagreements in our Republic. However, they were never pursued with such hatred, mendacity, propaganda and willingness to seek personal destruction. This has served their political agenda well by fooling the public which has allowed substantial destructive changes in our law, courts, social structure and governmental power. Where are the real culprits of this Republic?s destruction? They have been unwittingly betrayed and exposed by the prevarication of Mr. Biden.

  • johnt

    it doesn’t start to bother him. Plus he knows he will get the usual free pass from our media, which seems to have undue sympathy for psychopaths, as long as they’re Democrats.
    Birds of a feather and all that.

  • furious

    as Mary McCarthy said about Lillian Hellman:

    “Every word…a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the’”.

    It doesn’t bother Biden, he gets a free pass from the media, or the scariest conclusion of all: Biden can no longer tell the difference.

    Hard to believe that anyone can outperform the caricature of a sinecured Senate blowhard, but kudos to Joe for pulling it off.

  • billyjack

    [And note that the fellow can't even spell it.]

    Something like: Facts have no meaning. Only impressions have any bearing on this. The charges of plagarism are false, meant to bring down a good and honest man. The presented facts to prove plagarism are specious — products of shoddy work. One could easily think the producers of 60 Minutes II were behind them.

  • longwalker

    are the foundation for whatever knowledge of economics, finance and business in general that most of our public school graduates believe. After all, it is in the interest of businesses to kill offtheir customers. Right? Caprtain Planet is always fighting evil businessmen who are out to kill their customers. Forget Smith, Ricardo, Say, Gresham and Bastiat – Captain Planet tell the TROOOTH!

  • furious

    …he even lied about his first wife’s death:

    my wife and three kids were Christmas shopping for a Christmas tree. A tractor-trailer, a guy who allegedly ? and I never pursued it ? drank his lunch instead of eating his lunch, broadsided my family and killed my wife instantly, and killed my daughter instantly, and hospitalized my two sons, with what were thought to be at the time permanent, fundamental injuries.?

    Except there was no drinking. There was not even speeding. The truck?s brakes checked out, as well. It was not the driver?s fault.

    I wouldn’t wish a loss like that on a blowhard bully like Biden, but shame on him for adding to the burden that truck driver carried with him to his grave (he died in 1999, and can no longer defend himself).

  • peg_c
  • gazill

    interesting the pass given to both Biden’s fabrications and Obama’s duplicitous statements, as compared to the detailed analysis with every word uttered by President Bush (perfect example, the 16 words Africa/Nigeria statement)

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    Jeebus, kid, if you’re going to masturbate in public, couldn’t you have at least gone with…

    Actually, I can’t for the life of me think of one of ‘em that’s actually really that funny.

    Blam.

  • Praveen

    is hallucinating.

  • robmikpet

    You have a good friend, a really good friend. He is a little insecure so is always telling little white lies about himself. That girl he picked up (male friend example) and how beautiful she was. How much he used to bench press in college, etc.

    As your best friend you give him a pass largely because while you know the truth, he’s not hurting anyone but most importantly you could really embarrass him. Everytime he does it you ask that question “Is it worth embarrassing him over this little lie?”

    The media thinks of the Dems as their best friends and don’t want to embarrass them over something they see as a little white lie.